The Ten Resolutions (Happy New Year)

Every New Years
I try to think of a few sustainable Resolutions.
Since I am a teacher these are usually intertwined with goals for that teaching work, but inevitably I read others on New Years and scan the blogs or FB, listen to folks back at school and then I'm in such a fit of "why couldn't I think of that one."
Because I've always been good at adaptation, or outright idea stealing, this kind of feeling served me in art- but in New Year's resolutions it's annoying. Feels a cheat.
So here I go as the New Year dawns on the east coast over many I love....

My first resolution is To Work On My Envy Issues

There is no use pretending that I don't seethe with anger at the fact some kids work with iPads and laptops nationwide but my kids, students in a poverty school in CA, despite money coming from the state, do not. The best we've done is get 4 computers in the rooms replacing the ones 15 years old that never worked. And locked up much of it with blocking.
I cannot pretend to be thrilled reading the travel of various pals when I have not traveled in so long, mostly sickness, and I can't look in another teachers classroom without feeling insecure about my own.
So I'm going to consciously try to be happy for those that "got" and work on that envy.
If tomorrow I read a beautifully written, articulate, super set of resolutions for 2012 I'm going to work hard on that voice in my head that will start beating me up for failing to think of things like that.
Maybe I'll think of that person as evolving ahead of me into a state of clarity.
As a beacon.
Stated another way....

Celebrate Your Neighbor.

So, in recognition of that,



I plan to celebrate student success, those that stand up for others, accomplishments, giving, altruism, facing demons, honest emotional responses, truthfulness, creativity, creation, life, each new day, bravery in the face of defeat, the 7 french sauce families my daughter intends to learn to cook, effort, those I know and care about, our common humanity, your new stuff, the children's drawing and trees-all the things I see out there I so wish I could attain as a state of being. Among a host of other things- I plan to try to blog a few times a month about that celebration.

So that admitted on to Resolution Number Two-


well.....let's give it up for gratitude.



I'm going to resolve to be a bit more grateful.

For the opportunity to work, enjoy the lives of the children, use my capacities to design learning, for my children, for that really fresh air I'm breathing in slowly tonight.
Thanks and if I can put it in my head, every day, that you are EXACTLY WHERE YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO BE it will help me.
I am where I am supposed to be.
You are too.

That simple thing frees us don't you think?

Resolution Number three-

We are all aspects of whatever cosmic "knowing" there is. Whether you speak the dialect of in God's image or understand the thousand arms of love, the enlightenment is,
we are all the consciousness. Here now, in this moment, the cosmic is aware in you.

Shall we resolve to care for our earth, our self, our awareness?

I'm going to bring forward this awareness this year.

How?
Ummmmmm



Well I'll definitely try to look harder for ways to free myself from what I see as silences, gobbles, greeds, defaces, defames, and generally lowerers of the truth.


Resolution Number Four-


Darn it this one is going to be tough.
Write, write everyday,
try to see it
and tell it....
like
it
is

once in awhile pull it out of the trash and post it




Resolution Number Five

Fight for the homeless, poor, our nation's children, announce the truths of poverty, tell the stories,
witness,
witness,
witness,
witness
witness
brothers
sisters
I'm going to tell you
about the kids you need to know




Resolution Number Six

Let go of a little anxiety.

Parenting kids in late teens and early twenties is a lesson in letting go.
Humbling me to the ground.
I barely can speak it to you.

Considering I never let them ( my kids) cross a street it should shock no one that I...need...to...learn
How To Let them GO into their lives.



I don't know how to do this one.
I'm struggling with it.

You know that old expression about the butterfly, let go, if it returns, all that.
I'm going to simply meet the days this year with the thought I have to see others
as butterflies.
darn.

And that is setting me up for a very difficult resolution.

We do it all the time in teaching. It's a transition in a process of change.
We meet, work together, move forward and on.
Some of our students do return, check in, become friends, but we are always good bye artists.
I need to better apply his into the days now.
For a lot of reasons.

Resolution Number seven

This year 2011 was not a kind mistress.
She took my cousin Maria Rice.
She died due to suicide.
Depression.
It took the life of one of my husband's closest friends, John Leiderbach.
I gather the reason was the same.
Two better people you'd never meet.
Seriously.

It stole the parents of two dear friends, the Steve's.
The year plucked me up and hit me hard with an awareness of what we often fail to acknowledge.
Many people struggle with mental health, with a fight with loneliness, with fear, with anxiety, with the challenges of sadness, alcohol, drugs, addictions, struggles with the past, traumas.

I'm making a resolution to tell these stories, hear them, honor their lives, love harder, listen, reach out, try not to forget to send an email to say Happy New Year, I think of you.

Isolation is not a way through this.



In the New Year I'm going to better educate myself about these things.
In my personal life I'm going to try to help a daughter that struggles with these feelings.
I'm going to be present with the truth of this.

Resolution Number eight-

Be more creative....
See in a new way...

Try to do that darn Motown hits song show I've wanted to do forever with my class...



Resolution Number nine-

Bring some understanding everyday.

and I'm going to try to blog better
What's Going On, here on A Day In The Life...


Resolution Number Ten-


Love others.





Happy New Year.

Thank you so much for sharing my thoughts and being there with me through this blogging journey.




See my Mrs. Puglisi's 100 National Standards